City hires $395-an-hour lawyer to head water fight

Wednesday

Jan 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - The new City Council at its first regular meeting Tuesday agreed to hire a local attorney who's not afraid of big fights in a battle taking shape with a state water board, which officials fear could tie up Stockton in a new layer of red tape.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - The new City Council at its first regular meeting Tuesday agreed to hire a local attorney who's not afraid of big fights in a battle taking shape with a state water board, which officials fear could tie up Stockton in a new layer of red tape.

The council voted unanimously to pay Steve Herum $395 an hour in anticipation of a lawsuit against the state's Delta Stewardship Council over its Delta Plan.

The plan will make Stockton - and any of its water-related projects, from an upgrade to the city's sewer plant to building new homes - vulnerable to outside challenges, City Attorney John Luebberke said.

But the approval to hire Herum, and his law firm Herum Crabtree, didn't come until after newly elected council member Moses Zapien asked Luebberke to defend the hire.

Zapien, an attorney himself, told Luebberke that his two-page staff report to the council lacked the level of detail he needed to cast an informed vote. But it was more than the cost, Zapien said.

"It's making sure we're following an open and transparent process," Zapien said after the meeting.

Zapien wanted to know why the city attorney needed to hire outside his office; if Herum were the right person; and why there wasn't a cap of how much Herum's firm could ultimately charge Stockton, especially in the financially hard times?

Luebberke said Herum, in advance of filing a suit, will help the city position itself during the Delta Plan's final stages of preparation, what he called creating a "legislative record." The council will later decide if it needs to follow through with a lawsuit, Luebberke said.

"If we don't have our procedural ducks in a row, we might lose the case before it began," he said.

The initial stage should cost Stockton much less than $30,000, and Luebberke agreed to report back on the costs in April. Guessing at how much a full-blown lawsuit would cost is hard to say now, Luebberke said, because that depends on how aggressively the opponent responds.

Luebberke said his in-house staff is filled with skilled attorneys, but Herum is especially experienced at fighting large government and mega-companies such as Walmart.

"We have a track record with him," Luebberke said. "We have personal experience with him as being cost-effective and an effective litigator."

Council watchdog Gary Malloy raised similar questions as Zapien during a public comment period in the meeting.

Malloy said afterward that he was pleased that Zapien, and then the other council members, pressed the city attorney to justify Herum's contract.

"Very seldom do we question things," Malloy said. "It was good to see them do that."

This marked the first meeting of the newly formed City Council.

Last week, three council members - Zapien, Michael Tubbs and Kathy Miller - took the oath of office, and then they appointed Dyane Burgos to join them.